He's Her Ava Gardner
by cherokee10
Summary: "When they had first met she was unsure of him, because he was kind and he was gorgeous and he was quiet, which was a heady, rather dangerous combination in her book." My interpretation of a world in which Lorelai is pining for Luke rather than the other way around. Better description inside. My first GG fanfic!
1. Chapter 1

**Okay this is my first Gilmore Girls FanFic and my first** **time writing at all in wayy too long so please be nice :) I just thought it might be interesting to explore the idea of a role reversal as far as the whole pining storyline between Luke and Lorelai goes. In my version, Luke is in sort of an "oat sowing" phase, while Lorelai seems to find herself becoming more infatuated with and devoted to her unattainable best friend with every passing day. I took some liberties with their personalities and how close their friendship was, but tried not to stray too far from reality, so here goes nothing.**

 **Also the cringey Lorelai and Max relationship didn't happen. There is no specific time frame to this story at the moment, so feel free to let your imaginations run wild.**

When they had first met she was unsure of him, because he was kind and he was gorgeous and he was quiet, which was a heady, rather dangerous combination in her book.

As time went on, their friendship blossomed and her discomfort shifted to something more akin to friendship. Eventually she grew to depend on him as a constant in her and Rory's life.

The relationship was far from one sided, however, as Lorelai Gilmore was not the type to receive any sort of help without giving back in some way, meager as her showcases of gratitude sometimes were. He may have rather put something sharp in his ear than admit it, but Luke relied on her companionship as well.

To the untrained eye, their relationship may have resembled one between siblings, with a strong foundation of camaraderie and fierce protectiveness. And for a while, that assumption was not so far from the truth, in theory at least.

But that was then.

The sound of the bell above the door was a fairly unexciting occurrence for Luke Danes; while the heads of his patrons would swivel periodically to observe newcomers with fascination, he had developed the habit of calling out for them to seat themselves while he finished whatever task he had been priorly focused on at the same leisurely pace he had been working at before.

Some people (Taylor) may have called this customer neglect, but since when did Luke care what 'some people' thought.

He happened to be wiping down the counter (a rare occurrence and welcomed respite from refilling the cups of greedy caffeine-addicts) when Lorelai decided to make her rather ungraceful, but ostentatious as always entrance into his establishment.

He was already reaching with one hand for the superglue he kept below the counter for such occasions, when her anticipated plea reached his ears. The other hand was pouring her coffee, a habitual self preservation reflex.

"Luke my heel broke can you… hey thanks!" A smile lit her face as he pushed her coffee over to her and set to work at the embarrassingly familiar task.

"Geez this is what, the third heel I've glued since New Years?"

She huffed with embellished indignation at the perceived slight, "What are you suggesting, you think I've gained weight?"

Bright red in under four seconds. It had to be some new record.

"What? You know… I mean I didn't mean to… that's not what I—Hey!"

Her unsuccessfully stifled grin gave her away.

"Relax Lukey."

"Don't call me that."

"Don't call you what?"

"Lorelai," it came out as more of a growl than he had intended it to.

"Why on earth would I call you that when it's _my_ name?"

Patty came to her rescue before he could reach across the counter and wring her neck. "Lorelai dearie, have I got a man for you."

Now it was Lorelai's turn to go red. "Patty—"

"No, no no I will not take any more of your excuses. Honey, I hate to break it to you, but you need the loving touch of a _man._ Since you don't seem to be overly concerned with finding one for yourself, Babette and I are taking matters into our own hands."

With a smirk and a mouthed "karma," Luke disappeared into the kitchen, leaving Lorelai defenseless against the conniving older woman.

With no easy out in sight, Lorelai submitted to her fate with a sigh. She listened halfheartedly as Patty described the man she believed to be "perfect for her," knowing that no matter how perfect, smart, or charming this man turned out to be, he wouldn't stand a chance at stealing her heart. Nevertheless, she agreed to what she was sure would be a terrible mistake of a blind date, one she planned to drown out afterwards with booze and junk food galore.

Days later Lorelai sat in the same position at the Diner counter as she rattled off every possible excuse not to go on the wretched blind date to her audience of one uninterested diner owner and one Kirk.

"Ooh I could say I had a cat-funeral to go to, that one got me out of dating Rory's teacher back when she started Chilton. Thank God I dodged that bullet."

"If you want, I can go to the same restaurant where you're having your date and sit at a nearby table and pretend to have a heart attack."

Both heads involved in the fruitless discussion swiveled towards the uninvited commentator.

"How on Earth would that help Kirk?" She hadn't meant to snap, but Lorelai was already on edge and she hadn't even met the mystery guy yet.

"I don't know, you could offer to drive me to the hospital, unless he's a doctor, then he might want to come too…" Kirk allowed his sentence to trail off as he scratched his chin in search of a better plan.

"Kirk how long have you been here for?"

"Well I got here at 10:41 this morning so really only 5 hours and twelve—"

"Out."

"But Luke please, my mom has a new boyfriend and they're always—"

"Kirk, if you finish that sentence, so help me God..." Luke allowed the sentence to trail off with his unverbalized threat weighing heavily on the mind of the easily frightened man.

With his metaphorical tail between his legs, Kirk slunk from the diner.

Luke turned his attention back to Lorelai, unfazed by the strange antics of of of his 'regulars.'

"Why do you even have to come up with some elaborate excuse? Just call him and cancel."

She hid her face in her hands as she moaned that it was too late.

"Hey maybe you could come in and act like some crazy ex boyfriend of mine and threaten him to leave me alone or else!" Her face brightened considerably at the idea.

"As _tempting_ as that offer is, _truly_ , I can't. I'm going out with Kelly tonight."

As he turned to ring up a customer at the register, he missed her expression change from one of excitement to one of anguish before she plastered on that carefully crafted fake smile of hers to hide her distress.

Kelly was the newest, who Lorelai had yet to meet, though she had beard nothing but praises of her beauty from various townies. Before her was Linda, the New Year's Eve date, and Carley, who, to her credit lasted almost a year and a half.

Luke didn't even register the goodbye she tossed casually over her shoulder until he noticed the money she had left for her coffee on the counter. He glanced up just in time to see a flash of her red cardigan disappear around the corner at an unusually brisk pace for the notedly unathletic business woman in heels.

Later that very evening, Lorelai fiddled with the end of her scarf as she glanced fruitlessly about yet again. He was clearly not going to show; 50 minutes had been long enough of a wait to prove that fact to her. Yet she remained seated at the classy hotel's restaurant bar, nursing her second dirty martini and debating the cost of calling a cab versus the embarrassing burden of calling Sookie to pick her up.

Just as she was collecting herself to test her sobriety with a risky walk to the exit, she heard her name being called.

"Luke?"

He eased himself onto the barstool beside her, panting only slightly at the exertion of rushing to catch up with her before she left, having observed the empty martini glasses in front of her from afar and deducing that she may not be fit to leave on her own, which appeared to be the case as there were no detectable traces of any companion in her vacinity. "Hey."

She was dumbfounded, "hey. What on earth are you doing here? I thought you were going out with Kelsey tonight."

"I did go out with _Kelly,_ we went to see a movie but she started feeling sick in the middle so I offered to drive her back. This is the hotel she's staying at while they redo her pipes."

Lorelai nodded her understanding as she signaled to her new, close and personal friend Gavin the bartender to refresh her drink. Luke eyed the empty glasses around her nervously before ordering a beer for himself and paying for both of their drinks. Lorelai offered an uncharacteristically timid thank you and he shrugged off her gratitude, as was his habit.

"What about you?" He asked after a stretch of silence, as the bartender returned with their drinks. "Wasn't tonight your big blind date? How did that go?"

"It didn't."

"Huh?"

She shrugged, torn between embarrassment at having been stood up and relief at having avoided what would have surely been a disasterous evening. "He was a no show. I've been sitting here almost an hour because he was supposed to be my ride home."

Luke's brow furrowed, "you didn't bring the Jeep?"

Another shrug. "I knew the hotel was just down the block from where I take my business class so I just brought a change of clothes and took the bus because the Jeep is making that odd sound again. I changed in the bathroom and walked over after class was finished, and was counting on a ride home from the mystery man. By the time it became clear he wasn't coming, the last bus to Stars Hollow had already left. I was just debating calling a cab or Sookie actually."

Luke frowned at her statement but refrained from reprimanding her on her plan to accept a ride from a stranger, she seemed embarrassed enough already. "I can take you home and I'll stop by tomorrow to have a look at the jeep. Have you eaten anything?"

The corners of Lorelai's mouth lifted, and he was relieved to see the ghost of a smile for the first time that evening. "Nothing but a few of these olives," she brandished the toothpick-skewered olives from her third drink about in front of her. "I was supposed to dine for free tonight but that doesn't seem likely at this point…." Away went the smile, and he was desperate to see it returned to its rightful place on his dear friend's face.

"How 'bout I buy you dinner? Kelly and I never got to eat either and I'm starved, which I'm sure means you're about ready to eat a camel."

She smiled almost shyly, "you don't have to do that, I can pay for myself."

He brushed her offer off, already standing and offering her his arm to lead her to a nearby table. "Don't worry about it, you deserve to be wined and dined like a lady."

He winked. She blushed.

Lorelai stood in the doorway waving goodnight to Luke as he eased his familiar green truck out of her driveway and disappeared into the night.

With a heavy sigh she closed and locked the door behind her, leaving herself all alone in the big blue house. She slipped out of her impractical heels and dragged herself over to the couch, which she allowed herself to collapse on top of.

Phone in hand, she dialled the number of the only confidante privy to her top secret dilemma, desperate to provide the latest update on the 'situation.'

Sookie picked up sleepily after several rings. "Lorelai? It's almost 11. What's going on?"

Lorelai cringed, "sorry I hadn't realized how late it was. I'm sorry for waking you, I'll let you sleep."

She made to hang up but heard Sookie reassure her that she was wide awake now, so the duo settled in for some late-night gossip.

"Whoa," was Sookie's sole response after Lorelai had relayed her story. "That's quite a night you've had."

"I know, I don't even know what to think of it yet. Everything just happened in such rapid succession and before I knew it, Luke was dropping me off at the end of the night, as opposed to Bryan, the no-show blind date. What do you think?"

"I don't know sweetie," Lorelai could hear the look of pity on her friend's face through the receiver. "It just sounds like a happy coincidence to me, I wish it didn't. If I were you I'd try not to read anything into it."

She sighed, she seemed to be doing a lot of that lately. "I know Sook, I know I'm probably just looking for things that aren't there, but I can't help it. Tonight just felt really really good; it felt amazing to just be with him. And I know I'm with him all the time but it felt different. He talked about his parents; it's been ages since he brought them up with me. He told me stories about how he and his pals used to terrorize Taylor growing up in the Hollow. He smiled. He smiled more in one sitting, laughing and telling stories, than he usually does in a week. I just… It just felt really really good while it was happening, like nothing else mattered or even existed beyond the two of us. Now I just feel yucky and sad and alone."

"I know sweetie. I know." And she did. Sookie was the only one who knew about Lorelai's dilemma, and had been her number one confidante on the subject for almost two years now.

"When I started developing feelings for Luke I thought for sure it was just a crush; surely it would go away with time, denial, and willpower. I was scared. I was so scared that I might ruin the amazing friendship we've always had. Now it's been two years and I'm in love with my best friend and he has no idea and I'm just scared this thing is going to consume me. It's so hard Sook."

There wasn't any good response to that, so Sookie just sent her distressed friend as much love and support as she could over the phone, and sat with her in silent solidarity.


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey so I've decided that the time period is pre-series, so disregard what I wrote about Max and Chilton in the last chapter (unless you want to think that Chilton was some preppy pre-school in my alternate universe, knock yourself out.) Rory is about 6, which would make Lorelai 22/23. For the sake of the story we'll say Luke is 25/26 and Jess is about 7.**

The next week things were mostly back to normal. Well, as normal as they ever were nowadays.

Thursday afternoon found Lorelai exhausted after a full day of work and arriving back at the potting shed with her ever exuberant and energetic daughter, who was chattering on about her day at school

All she could think about was falling into bed for a long nap while Rory worked on one of her puzzles; she had been dealing with a crazed hostess all day, trying to finalize the last minute preparations for Mr. Hartling's retirement party. She had been working alongside Gina, learning the ropes of event planning for months now, and had a pretty good idea of what she was doing, but this party would be her first solo event as head of event planning after Gina left on her indefinite maternity leave, and the task was draining and time consuming.

An hour or so into her nap, Lorelai was awakened by the ringing landline that Mia had insisted they install in case of emergency. Only Mia, Sookie, Luke, and (to Lorelai's dismay) her parents had the number.

"Hello?" She cringed at the grogginess of her voice, just barely awake.

"Lorelai? Thank God. Can you come over?"

She sat up at the panicky sound of Luke's voice, usually so calm and collected.

"Sure I can come over. What's going on? Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine it's just—"

She heard a resounding crash from his end of the conversation. "Luke?!"

He sighed, "I'm watching my nephew, Jess. Can you just come?"

She her lips quirked up at his apparent cluelessness and the desperation in his voice. "I'll be right over with Rory."

"Okay, thanks." Another crash. "Hurry."

XXXXX

When the Gilmore Girls arrived on the scene, Luke's apartment had already undergone a transformation to no man's land. He ushered Rory and Lorelai inside.

"So what's the deal?" Lorelai asked, keeping an eye on Rory as she began to wander about the untidy apartment. "Where's this troublemaking nephew of yours?"

Luke sighed, "he locked himself in the closet. Don't laugh." He added, before she could begin to mock him on his lack of babysitting skills.

She held her hands up in mock surrender before turning to face the closed closet door. "How long has he been in there?"

"Twenty or thirty minutes or so. I'm not really sure. It feels longer."

She gave him a sympathetic smile. "Do you know what kind of ice cream he likes?"

Luke shrugged, "not specifically. I always figured as long as it's got sugar any kid'll eat it."

Lorelai rolled her eyes at his obtuseness. "Hey, Luke," she kept her voice purposely raised so Jess would hear her from his hideout. "Rory and I haven't had much to eat today. Think you could make us some milkshakes?"

Luke raised an eyebrow in confusion before he noticed Lorelai's gesturing to the door and caught on to her strategy. "Sure. What kind of milkshake do you guys want?"

"Strawberry." The pair heard something clatter to the floor from inside the closet. "And of course by strawberry what I really meant was chocolate."

Luke nodded and headed downstairs to make the three milkshakes.

"Mommy, Luke's making us milkshakes? Before dinner?"

Lorelai grinned down at her daughter, "yes he is. It's too bad no one else is here to celebrate dessert before dinner with us." She punctuated the sentiment with an exaggerated sigh, trying to suppress her grin when she heard and saw in her peripheral vision the closet door squeak open ever-so-slightly, only to close again when Rory turned towards the noise.

When Luke returned with three chocolate milkshakes, Lorelai made a point of exaggeratingly slurping at the rich frozen drink. "Man, it's really a shame that we have this delicious extra milkshake and no one to share it with since you don't like chocolate, Luke." She winked at him. "If only there was someone else here who liked chocolate milkshakes. Then at least we wouldn't have to waste this third glass."

They heard the closet door creak open yet again, and this time a shy-looking little boy, roughly Rory's age, came out cautiously with a book hugged to his chest. "I can drink it, I mean, if you don't want to have to throw it away." He averted his gaze back to the floor.

Lorelai grinned, "Thank goodness, I was so worried we'd have to pour this one down the drain." She held out the third milkshake to the boy as he approached and sat down at Luke's meager kitchen table. "I'm Lorelai and this is my daughter, Rory. What's your name?"

"Jess. I'm from New York." The quiet boy felt compelled to answer the woman with the warm inviting smile with more than his usual muttered monosyllable. He had that in common with is relatively untalkative uncle.

"It's very nice to meet you Jess. I'm glad you decided to join us out here."

Luke sat quietly at the table as he observed the interaction between his best friend and his quiet, usually moody nephew. It never failed to amaze him how quickly and easily she could draw even the shyest of people out of their shell.

As newfound friends, Jess and Rory, ran off to play a boardgame Lorelai had unearthed from the depths of his closet, she turned her megawatt smile on him.

"Thanks, I don't know how you do that but I'm sure glad you did."

She blushed a bit at his praise. "Anytime."

XXXXX

Later that evening the four of them sat around Luke's couch watching the one and only kid-appropriate move they could find in his cabinet, and even that was a bit of a stretch: The Karate Kid.

Regardless, the kids had loved it, and fought diligently to stay awake until the end, but alas they were unable to avoid succumbing to sleep. They currently lay splayed out across the couch at opposite ends.

Luke and Lorelai played a game of cards on the living room floor as the credits of the movie played, chatting and barely noticing the late hour.

"So Jess mentioned he's from New York?"

Luke exhaled and attempted to rub some of the tension out of his own shoulders after his long day. "Yeah, he lives there with his mom. I've told you about my sister, Liz?"

Lorelai shrugged, "her name has come up once or twice in conversation but you've never really told me about her." She frowned, "until today I didn't even know you had a nephew."

"Liz sort of spiralled out of control a bit after our mom died. That's when she got in with the wrong crowd and started smoking, drinking and—" he cringed— "having sex. Jess came into the picture about nine months after her 19th birthday. They stuck around for a year or so when he was a baby, but she took off with him when our dad died. It was just too much for her I suppose; she never really had been great at handling her emotions. I don't really talk about either of them much. I hear from her every now and then when she needs money or another one of her jerk boyfriends kicks her out of the apartment they've been crashing in. Today she showed up for the first time in six years, asking me to watch Jess while she went away with her boyfriend for a day or two. She was out the door before I could even respond."

Lorelai gave him a sympathetic look and glanced over at the dozing boy on the couch. "Poor kid. That must be hard on him."

"Yeah. And his dad was gone before they even left the hospital. Liz always knew how to pick her men." The sarcasm in his voice was unmistakable.

Lorelai let out a somewhat self-depricating laugh. "Maybe I should give her a call. We could start a club."

Luke shook his head. "You don't pick bad men. You just haven't found the right guy for you yet."

She quirked an eyebrow in his direction. "And the right guy for me is…?"

Luke shrugged yet again. "I don't know. Someone who gets you, who knows how important your relationship with your daughter is and respects that, hell, admires it. Someone who treasures getting to wake up beside you and fall asleep with you in his arms. You deserve to be with someone who loves all of your little quirks. Someone who doesn't take you for granted, and makes you laugh. My mom always said she was first attracted to my father when he made her laugh so hard milk came out of her nose. I'm sure that guy is out there for you, you just haven't had the greatest luck finding him yet."

Her smile, which had fallen by this point, returned to her face though her expression was a bit strained. "Yeah, I suppose you're right."

XXXXX

With the late hour, Lorelai's lack of car, the distance between the diner and the potting shed, and Rory's nearly unconscious state, Luke insisted that the Gilmore Girls sleep in his bed while he made himself a pallet on the floor beside the couch where Jess slept.

After exchanging sleepy goodnights and turning out the nights, Lorelai mused about how nice it was having him be one of the last people she saw before falling asleep; how natural it felt to fall asleep on his bed, breathing in his scent that lingered on the pillow case. She dozed off to the sounds of her daughter's breath rising and falling steadily and Luke snoring from the living room floor.


End file.
